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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Solace in Sisters...

Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister. ~Alice Walker

We all needed solace. We all needed our cups filled in a deep way.

Life has a way of draining our bodies sometimes without us even knowing. Our way to deal with just normal stresses eases out of us like my now leaky pool or even my water heater (UGH!). Normal people have friends... they can fill up these little leaks and remind us that we are going to be fine and everything will work itself out. They remind us that in the end all these little crazies don't even matter.

My sisters and I are far from normal...in fact we may or may not be even on the scale.

So we don't have a lot of friends. We really like people and they seem to like us but we just don't play with others all that much. I can't speak for my sisters but

when the kids were little I actually did a lot.

I had park days, mom's lunches, constant school stuff and all the unplanned events, when in the early evening sun the neighborhood mama's all congregated outside on our driveways. We would watch the little ones play and it always turned out to be some type of therapy session that reinforced we were all going to be okay.

Then I moved into pear cottage and it was in a much less social hood. I had two best friends that lived close but sadly they both moved out of state.

Plus the kiddos grew.

My teens demanded so much more of me.

Carpooling to sports and other activities, helping with homework, kid stresses, a husband who works from home and just overall constant stuff kept me either busy or wanting to be home...with them.

Over the years I have become quite the introvert.

Not healthy I realize, and I have known I need to shift but boy that's tough.

I don't mind being by myself. I relish my thinking time but I know that as women we are major social beings and so I am trying to figure this one out. It will take some time. :)

So we try and fill up our own leaky selves.

Of course my unfailing supporter, soul mate and love of my life husband helps me fill these holes more regular than he can possibly know.

But sometimes I just need my sissies.

No judgement...just support

No comparisons...just love.

No drama...just laughs.

So it started with our England trips every spring.

Something to look forward to....the connection, the laughs, the unfailing support, the filling up of the leaks. It was then decided...we will go every spring come hell or high water we said and we meant it.

This is our time baby. This is sister time.

Now the only sad part in all of this is that life sometimes doesn't let us do what we want so we were minus one sister this trip. We missed her terribly and

our beautiful picture that we made, is missing a vibrant color.

But we made a commitment and by darn we are holding ourselves to it.

So hello to our San Francisco trip sister style.

I have lived here for 15 years but never saw it quite like this.

Our best day ever.

Until the day after that and then the day after that.

Hiking in our hills, not showering...never showering and biking on our three beach cruisers to Walnut Creek to go shopping.

Crappy croissants but oh how that nutella tried to save it and by darn it almost did...almost.

That lady that works at "La Boulangerie" wouldn't know a good croissant if it slapped her in the face. That was a Costco roll for crying out loud.

Biking home just in time to get back in the car, no time ever for showering, headed back to Walnut for our dinner. Headed to Trader Joe's for the best movie treats ever and I'm serious. Snuck those beauties into "The other Women," laughed our guts out for 2 hours and headed back home to talk and laugh some more. I am not sure if we ever showered and did I mention that this was

THE BEST DAY EVER!

This is just tooooo funny not to share.

This was the best day ever for real.

It sounds silly now but truly a spiritual experience.

This day hiking Lands End with my sisters and their love, and encouragement, I got all filled back up.

No leaks at all...completely filled up.

My heart nearly burst at times with love, appreciation and understanding of my life.

This one beautiful life that I have the privilege of living.

It's not perfect but it's mine.

I get to choose what to do with my next breath and how I choose to see the world and my circumstances.

I get to be happier, kinder, more charitable, a better mother and a better wife.

Me...it's up to me.

And walking through the labyrinth, hugging my sisters, overlooking the ocean

I was just so grateful...I am just so grateful.

Annabelle even taught us some yoga poses.

Our pitiful but such happy attempts...

Annabelle's pose is so freaking cool...she is just so cool and when I grow up I want to do that.

We nervously biked not knowing what in the h*** we were doing and followed other fellow bikers to the ferry building on Embarcadero.

Where we had the most splendid cheese samples known to all of mankind and made our selection for our dad who makes all things possible.

Ordered our best lunch ever of impossible delicious gooey cheese oozing out of the best bread making it the best grilled cheese sandwich ever and ate it overlooking the bay.

I mean seriously.

We then started our very precarious ride down the Embarcadero to Golden Gate Bridge, then crossed it and meandered down and up to Sausalito. This was all done with millions of other people and cars and wind and hills and us on our beach cruisers...one red, one aqua blue and one in a soft yellow with birds on it .

This bridge looks flat so in theory it should be easy to cross.

But we all know that looks can be deceiving and we didn't know that we were headed straight into a wind tunnel. We would have had an easier time biking straight up Lombard street then crossing this seemingly beautiful icon.

When we would go around the huge towers the wind would shove us straight into the medal sides. Needless to say between the shoving, the laughing and getting hurt I may or may not have wet my pants just a little bit.

This is close to the spot where we realized that Annabelle's brakes were non existent. If I wasn't laughing so hard I would have been scared.

Playing in Sausalito would have been so much more fun if we wouldn't have been circling like vultures our cute cruisers for fear of it landing the same fate as the bike parked next to ours. ;)

We are cold but the fear of nausea kept us outside.

Thank goodness!!!!!

Check out Tiff...I couldn't say it any better.

After not being able to take the first train due to the fact that we would have smashed/killed people with our ginormous bikes we waited for the next. Proceeding to haul

our bikes for the last 300 stairs...ever out of the BART station we biked to downtown Walnut Creek for dinner at a mexican restaurant. We just didn't realize that it was Cinco de Mayo...dang it.

But seriously this was the BEST DAY EVER!!!!

This was supposed to be the best day ever too because I love Carmel-By the Sea so much that I can't stand it. But sometime between being cold and the wind and the sand ruining my beautiful picnic on this picturesque beach I think I said, "This is worst day ever."

Yep, this is where I said it.

I don't look like I meant it but trust me it was miserable. A perfectly good sandwich was ruined.

But in the end just being with my sisters made it almost the best day ever but not quite.

This day had some pretty big shoes to fill.

I had heard this place was good but I will have you know it isn't.

The pizza was gross.

How does an Italian restaurant ruin pizza? I mean I make good pizza...go figure.

Thank you sisters for so many best day evers!!! Thank you for filling all my leaks and filling my cup back up. (Now only if my pool was so easy to fix.) I don't know what I would do without you!!!!!!!! Thank you dad for everything....we would seriously be lost without you!!!!!!